How do I decide which questions my book or idea should be known for?

A huge subject can hide what your book is really for

“Politics,” “freedom,” “leadership,” or “self-help” may be far too broad by themselves.

Those words put you beside thousands of books that may have almost nothing to do with the question your work is actually able to answer.

Get specific about where your work belongs

Start with the people you want to help, the problem or desired change, your ideas, and the questions your work is equipped to answer.

That tells us which books and ideas belong in the same comparison—and which do not.

A simple way to draw the border

• Who is the work for?
• What problem or desired change is it about?
• What ideas or definitions are central?
• What other books or views answer the same questions?
• Which nearby subjects are not actually what your work is about?

Being narrower is not being smaller

You do not become more useful by claiming your work answers everything.

You become easier to trust when people can see exactly where your work has something real to contribute.